Lynn
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Lynn. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of Essex County, Massachusetts. It is situated near the northern end of Massachusetts Bay, about ten miles from Boston. It was founded in 1629. The name was given in memory of an English city, from which the first pastor of the town came. Lynn is noted chiefly for the making of boots and shoes , an industry in which the city has hardly a rival in the world. Although labor-saving machinery has been developed to a high degree of excellency, about 25,000 hands are employed. The value of its annual output of boots and shoes is in excess of $40,000,000. The tanning industry is also of importance. About 6,000 people are employed in the manufacture of electrical supplies. The Lynn public library contains 65,000 volumes. The present population is about 80,000. See Massachusetts ; Boots And Shoes
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city in Essex co., Mass., on Massachusetts Bay, and the Boston and Maine and the Boston Revere Beach and Lynn railroads; 5 miles S. W. of Salem, and 11 miles N. E. of Boston. The city contains the villages of East Lynn, Glenmere, Highlands, Linwood, Lynnmere, West Lynn, and Wyoma. The chief industries are the manufacture of shoes in which it is the first city in the world, morocco leather, and electrical appliances, machinery, and foundry products, and patent medicines. There are two public libraries , National and savings banks, waterworks owned by the city, daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. Lynn was organized as a city in 1850. Pop. (1910 ) 89,336; (1920) 99,148.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts rest on one industry: Aiton's in 1910 said Lynn had "hardly a rival in the world" in boots and shoes, with 25,000 hands and a $40,000,000 output, and Collier's in 1921 still called it "the first city in the world" for shoes. That trade collapsed over the following decades as production moved south and then overseas, and a 1981 fire gutted much of what remained of the old shoe district. What survived and grew was the electrical work the entries mention almost in passing: the General Electric plant at West Lynn built America's first jet engine in 1942 and still makes aircraft engines, making it the city's industrial anchor. The Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn narrow-gauge railroad named by Collier's shut down in 1940; population, 99,148 in 1920, has hovered near 100,000 ever since, now with large Latino and Southeast Asian communities.
Written for this edition, 2026.